The 6th Edition of the International Circus Movement’s Festival Periplo concluded recently with a splendid three-week circus celebration that attests the rise of Guadalajara City in Mexico as a promising circus center. From July 9th to the 29th 2018, the festival’s program featured dazzling circus coded in contemporary registers. Per the festival tradition, a line-up of international, national and local circus talents was featured at the festival. This year’s special guests, Wes Peden (U.S.), Florence Huet (France), Aimé Morales (Venezuela), and Gabriela Muñoz (Mexico) amazed and delighted audiences of a city increasingly captivated by contemporary circus performance. Acting locally but with national impact, Festival Periplo is part and parcel of a circus revival in Mexico that reflects global trends. More than twice the size of last year, this edition had around 4,500 attendees. There were seven shows at six different venues, such as Foro Periplo, the Laboratorio de Arte Variedades (LARVA), and the Conjunto de Artes Escénicas (CAE), among others. Special events complemented the festival’s public program with film screenings, conferences, an electro-juggling-party, the IJA national juggling competition, and also included the arrival of “Nautilus,” an itinerant circus library that docked and opened doors at different points across the city. Always on time and schedule, Festival Periplo has carried on with this vibrant and rich circus celebration, proving substantial organizational expertise, and reaffirming its vital mission as a cultural promoter of the circus arts at local grounds.

Festival Periplo was founded in 2013 by its current Executive Director, Juan Mendez and its Coordinator, Cynthia Delgadillo, who gathered around a group of young people passionate for both practicing circus and working towards its professionalization. From inception, Festival Periplo set a clear goal: positioning the circus arts in the city’s cultural landscape. In an interview, Juan Mendez recounted that only a few years ago, contemporary circus in Mexico had little support and lacked of...